Arthur relies most heavily on his Attack and Defense stats to be successful. Attack is his best boon followed by Defense. He makes poor use of Speed and even Resistance outside of his matchups against dragons.

Boons

+ATK: Attack is Arthur’s best overall boon for all three of his sets, but is especially important on his Distant Counter build. Increasing the raw damage of his Special trigger is important for winning certain matchups, such as his matchup against Dorcas.

+DEF: Defense is his second best boon, and has slightly worse performance overall. Defense is great for Arthur’s sustain set and also makes his Bonfire specials hit harder.

Neutral

HP: Arthur isn’t reliant on HP for any skills, so he can safely reduce it. If he has a HP boon however, he can make good use of Earth Boost as a budget skill option.

Banes

-SPD: Thanks to skills such as Quick Riposte, Arthur does not rely on his Speed to double attack foes. His optimal set aims to OHKO foes with just one hit, making Speed one of the least useful stats on Arthur.

-RES: Arthur can comfortably beat most dragons even with a Resistance bane, especially with an Emerald Axe. However, it makes him unreliable at countering Reinhardt, making Speed the better choice for a bane.

Arthur is an effective anti-ranged unit due to his well-rounded statline giving him a passable Resistance and Defense. This set is designed around luring and KO’ing enemies who would threaten Arthur’s team.

Wrath and Quick Riposte might appear to have conflicting synergy, but since Wrath activates mid-battle, the two can be used in unison, albeit for one battle. However, once Arthur is within Wrath range, he won't need Quick Riposte as he will be aiming to OHKO units with Wrath-boosted Specials. Glimmer is the premium special choice, as with a Slaying Axe Arthur only needs to take one hit before he retaliates with a powerful special. Distant Counter lets him punish ranged attackers as well as physical.

Bonfire is another option for Arthur, giving him stronger performances against enemies with high Defense. This requires the Quickened Pulse seal however, meaning he can only fast-charge his special once. If you have a Resistance bane, Distant Defense is a good pickup that lets Arthur counter Reinhardt much more reliably.

Def Smoke makes it easier for Arthur to KO enemies past the first, but Spur Def/Res is a great team support ability. Arthur comes with Swap naturally, which he can use or replace with Reposition if you wish to grant allies more mobility.

Arthur’s well-rounded stats lend him to a successful sustain tank set. He can outlast his enemies and restore HP thanks to Aether. A defensive refine on his weapon plus Steady Breath also make him a lot more resilient to enemy attacks. The strategy behind this set is to let enemies initiate into Arthur, allowing him to trigger Aether on his retaliatory double attack.

Aether, Steady Breath and Quick Riposte are the key elements behind this set, and allow Arthur to charge and fire Aether on every round of combat. If Steady Breath cannot be obtained, then Earth Boost and Sol are serviceable replacements. Keep in mind that with Sol, Arthur will do no additional damage when he activates his Special.

Close Def is the choice for his Seal slot, combining with Steady Breath and his refine to give Arthur an effective 44 Defense. He can opt for Quick Riposte in his B seal slot and take Guard instead there. This alternative is great vs. fast-charging Specials but Guard carries an additional HP requirement, which may make it tough to keep active over multiple battles.

This is a viable Arena set for Arthur, and so high-scoring skills such as Atk Smoke and Rally Atk/Def are great choices for him. However, he works just as well with the cheaper Reposition and Swap skills. Atk Smoke makes Arthur a much better “One Man Army” unit whereas a dual spur skill gives him better tools to support his teammates.

Introduction

Arthur hails from Fire Emblem Fates, where he is known for his legendary streak of bad luck. Unfortunately for Arthur, his streak has continued in his Fire Emblem Heroes appearance. Arthur is an axe-wielder with a well-rounded statline and notable levels of Attack, Speed and Defense.

Compared to most other axe-users though, Arthur falls down significantly. His moderated statline leaves him with little niche over more well-optimised units in higher tiers. Arthur is a jack of all trades, but a master of none.

However, fans of Arthur will find him easily obtainable and mergeable, as a three to four star unit. Arthur is usable on a budget thanks to his base skills, and he is a great specialist unit killer in Arena Assault. While his optimal builds require a lot of valuable skills, Arthur is ready to roll even with his base kit.

Strengths

A mighty well-rounded statline.

Arthur has 32 Attack, 29 Speed and 30 Defense. This gives him a reasonably decent statline with enough Speed to avoid some double attacks. 32 Attack is on the low side for a tank, but this can be remedied through a boon or with skill choice.

Easy to get and cheap to build.

As a unit available in the three to four star pool, Arthur is very easy to merge up or build. He comes with an Emerald Axe and Lancebreaker, which make him immediately useful on the field. Arthur is an excellent candidate for a 4 star +10 build, as players will likely accrue many copies of him unintentionally.

Weaknesses

Has no real niche as a unit.

Arthur’s biggest viability issue is that his well-rounded statline gives him no real niche over his competitors. Most jobs that Arthur can do, others can do better. His stats are poorly optimized with a mediocre Resistance and Speed not high enough to be very useful.

Heavily outclassed by other axe users.

Arthur’s second problem is the presence of many powerful axe users who are much stronger than Arthur and excel at their given roles. Many, such as Hector, boast strong unique weapons combined with optimised statlines that allow them to perform much more consistently than Arthur. There are much better offensive and defensive unit choices which leaves Arthur outclassed in all fields.

Team Options

Arthur is best used as a specialist unit, dedicated to his job of killing blue units. Depending on which build Arthur chooses, he will want allies with different capabilities. If he uses Distant Counter, he will be less reliant on allies to possess that skill. Arthur really just needs good type coverage for him to do his job, and does not need any support to fulfill his potential.

Blue Tanks: This is a requirement for Arthur if he is carrying an Emerald Axe. Arthur needs to have an ally capable of handling red units. Physical tanks are best if he has Distant Counter, otherwise he will require an ally with the skill. Nowi, Corrin-F, Fallen Hardin, Effie, and Winter Robin are all great allies for Arthur.

Red Units: As they nearly always need help to handle blue threats, Arthur is a perfect team-mate to them. He can handle all kinds of blue units well, even mages with his Distant Counter set. Ayra, Zelgius, the Black Knight, Tiki(Adult), and Olivia are some units who appreciate Arthur’s presence on the field.

Counters

Arthur’s counters are determined by his build, however he will nearly always be beaten by red units. Their high speed enables them to reliably double and KO Arthur. He also fares poorly against some archetypes of attackers and users of the Guard skill, who stop him from activating Specials.

Red Units: Even without an Emerald Axe, he stands no chance against them. He should keep his distance from Olivia, Ayra, Sigurd, Winter Tharja, Sanaki, and the Black Knight.

Guard: Arthur’s optimal set revolves heavily around triggering his special to KO enemies. However if they carry Guard, they can delay Arthur’s special and defeat him before he gets a chance to use it. Guard is commonly seen on physical tanks such as Brave Ike, Sheena, Amelia, and Dorcas.

Pavise Attackers: Units such as Raven, Eliwood, and Hana can make use of a Pavise build to safely tank Arthur’s special. This is a niche set, but is very reliable at beating units like Arthur who rely on triggering specials.

User Submitted Builds

So, this is more of a mixed player and enemy phase build. Do to his 43 def and 30 res he can quite easily tank hits, even from red units. It’s also quite easy for him to double others do to his 38 spd, because of the boon in spd. Mine is at +4 and does really well with the likes of Legendary Roy and Legendary Azura, since they can buff up each other.
Because of his mean atk at 54, plus the buffs from Fury 3 and Handbell+, he can end up one-shotting Surtr, but that is usually only if Arthur gets some buffs from Azura and Roy, is in Wrath range and has Aether triggered, but that’s still great, do to the amount of people that use Surtr.
Also, these stats are with ss (summoner support), so the stats without are: 51, 54, 38, 41 and 29.

Very powerful and versatile unit. With buffs he is a force to be reckoned with, now being able to double effectively, as well as tank physical blue/green units. With 27 RES (31 with standard +4 buff) he is even able to take on a blue mage (and quite often green too) and retaliate with great force. Needless to say, as long as they aren't red enemies, many units will struggle taking Arthur down

All rounder fighter. Investing in his speed to make him hard to double. Deflect magic make him be able to survive any magic attack.

Changing bonfire for sol make him more durable, but you loose kill potential. Sack of gift can be used too, but have less kill potential as you can't hit back with bonfire in the same round, but the stat boost is pretty nice

This build makes him rather tricky to kill while also turning his middling speed stat into something worthwhile. His decent defensive line also adds insult to injury as his high speed prevents him from getting doubled.